1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of data processing systems and more particularly to a method and system for updating system firmware on multiple, interconnected systems.
2. History of Related Art
In the field of data processing systems generally and networked data processing systems in particular, updating the firmware of one or more systems is typically a manually intensive procedure. Traditionally, firmware updates have been achieved by inserting a computer readable medium (such as a diskette or CD) into an appropriate drive and restarting the system. The medium includes codes that, when executed as part of the system boot procedure, will reprogram some or all of the system's firmware. In a traditional networked environment, firmware updating is made more difficult because the number of systems increases. Even more significantly, in many network environments, it may not be appropriate to assume that all systems have a bootable drive that can accept the firmware update medium. In such environments, network-wide firmware update would have to include a method of updating firmware via the network or, even less desirably, a manual process in which a drive, keyboard, and monitor are temporarily attached to each system for purposes of performing the firmware update.
In some environments, the firmware update problem is still further complicated by the architecture of the network. As an example, some multi-system networks employ an architecture that effectively merges the resources of multiple systems into a single multi-system partition. In a merged environment, the firmware modules of the individual systems may be effectively hidden or inaccessible such that, even if a remote firmware update procedure were available, they could not be applied to systems within the partition that are invisible to the network. Accordingly, it would be desirable to implement a procedure and mechanism for updating firmware in a multi-system environment. It would be further desirable if the implemented solution were effective in merged architectures and did not require complete disassembly of the merged environment. It would be still further desirable if the implemented solution did not require significant manual oversight and did not require re-arrangement or reconfiguration of physical resources.